In the year 1804 there were still in being many fragments of the venerable foundation of Bermondsey Abbey, probably more than of almost any religious edifice in or near London, owing, it is supposed, to its remote situation, which did not encourage the improvements generally so fatal to old buildings. The principal entrance, called the Gate House, was then nearly entire; it stood direct north and faced Bermondsey Church. An old stone wall ran eastward the whole extent of the churchyard. On the other side of this wall was a row of very old houses, whose stone-framed windows and style of building were witnesses to their antiquity. The great Gate House and nearly all the ancient buildings, with the exception of two or three dwelling houses, have, since 1805, been destroyed, and a modern street, called Abbey Street, has been erected on their site. A small portion of the Abbey walls yet remains on the south side, and a fragment of the same wall on the north side of Long Walk; the latter being a part of that which surrounded the conventual churchyard. There is reason to think that the monastic buildings were separated from the Grange, which extended to the water side, by a long brick wall.